Reliance Jio's call failure rate is unacceptable, says Trai

The regulator will seek explanations from the telecom operators on the reasons for such call failures and decide on "appropriate legal steps" as necessaryET Bureau | Updated: September 27, 2016, 09:26 IST

NEW DELHI: As much as 80-90 per cent of calls made between the networks of newcomer Reliance Jio Infocomm and other telecom companies fail, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India said, even as it threatened to take action over this "unacceptable" level of call failures.

The high rate of call failure could only be due to inadequate points of interconnection (PoIs) between the networks, Trai Chairman RS Sharma said, in what may be seen as a blow to incumbent operators such as Bharti Airtel, Vodafone India and Idea Cellular that have been claiming that they have provided enough PoIs to take care of far more subscribers than Jio actually has.

The regulator will seek explanations from the telecom operators on the reasons for such call failures and decide on "appropriate legal steps" as necessary, Sharma said. "Prima facie this constitutes to non-compliance of licence conditions related to interconnection and QoS (quality of service) norms on congestion levels at points of interconnection."

Trai had looked at call traffic details from September 15 to 19, he said. "Looking at the data, the call failure figures are really unacceptable as against 0.5 per cent quality of service standards," Sharma added, without naming the phone companies that could be pulled up.

"The consumers are suffering because of this issue and that is what is bothering us," Sharma said, adding that the regulator is now analyzing call traffic data on a day-today basis.

"In a couple of days, we will decide if we need to call the telcos for another meeting. We will call it, if we think it will serve any purpose," he added.Sharma’s comments come in the backdrop of a raging war with Jio on one side and Bharti Airtel, Vodafone and Idea on the other over providing adequate PoIs to the Mukesh Ambani-owned new entrant. Jio has been saying that incumbent telcos, mainly the top three, haven't provided enough PoIs resulting in its users facing huge call failure issues.

As recently as September 23, Jio said over 12 crore calls were failing daily between it and the networks of Airtel, Vodafone and Idea, as against zero call failures on the Jio network.

Both the warring parties had appeared conciliatory after a September 10 meeting called by Trai to resolve the battle. The three incumbent telcos had stated they had provided or were in the process of providing more PoIs, but each time Jio reacted by saying they were not enough and that the number of call failures were only increasing.

Reacting to the Trai chairman’s comments, Airtel said it is fully compliant with all regulations and licence conditions, including the rules related to quality of service and interconnect regulations. Vodafone, Idea and Jio didn't respond to specific queries on Sharma's remarks.

The Trai chairman brushed aside complaints by incumbent telcos of asymmetric traffic and predatory pricing against Jio due to the new entrant’s free offers, which entails offering voice services below the interconnect user charge (IUC or call termination charge) of 14 paise a minute. "The very fact that you have a termination charge means traffic is expected to be asymmetric. Also, the termination charge doesn’t carry with it a stipulation regarding the extent of asymmetry,"

Sharma said, adding, for some to say now that a situation of asymmetric traffic was not envisaged isn’t right.

On predatory pricing, Sharma said, "We don’t see a reason to intervene now because the issue of pricing is under forbearance."

Bharti Airtel Chairman Sunil Mittal had told ET on September 21 that Jio's free-voice-for-life offer raises the question of "predatory pricing" since it means going below the minimum 14 paise per minute that a telco pays for interconnection, and added that the telcos would be looking at Trai to come out with a regulation as per its own tariff norm.

When asked about the nasty public battle being fought between Jio and the others, Sharma said, "I am not an arbitrator. I am the regulator."

Separately, RCom initiated contempt proceedings in the apex court against the Department of Telecommunications, blaming it for delaying a spectrum sale that would have enabled dues to be paid to Ericsson and lenders.